Sightless
by Aiko Isari
Summary: (01 AU) When someone comes back from death, they don't always stay the same. For Yagami Hikari, this is definitely the case. However, before the Digital World can even get involved, someone else does. Life -and death- are never the same again. Updated up to twice a week.
1. The Still Night

_**A/N:** _Hello. Is an Aiko crazy, why yes she is. It's fun.

Challenge Fills: Tale in Fragments Challenge, 50 prompts, easy list 1 for 44- rigid, Advent Calendar Challenge day 8. write an AU, and Diversity Writing Challenge. J10. Write a story with no prologue or epilogue.

First story in a series here, too! Name of the series escapes me now but... hey, that's life.

Warning for magic, eventual murder, violence, maybe a swear or two, and situations harmful to minors. This has elements of the Kara no Kyoukai series in it, but not enough that you need to watch the series to know what's going on. Just stuff might stick out.

Okay, all of the technical stuff is out of the way, here we go. Please read and review!

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><p>1. The Still Night<p>

When she wakes for the first time, Hikari hears nothing.

She doesn't hear herself breathe, and she wonders if she is. When she opens her eyes, the world she sees is muted watercolor.

She feels no cold. Her body is bare and pale. Around her, the world expands endlessly, and she is alone in it.

_Onii-chan? Where am I?_

She makes to say it aloud, but her lips refuse to move and she realizes she can't blink. Her chest aches and the world bends around her for a moment, but all goes still again and she wavers.

_How did I get here?_

The question is delayed, perhaps by her own sluggish mind. She desires the answer for all of the few seconds it takes to process the thought and then it is gone.

She is tired. She wants to sleep.

So again and again, Hikari closes her eyes and drifts away. And each time, each time it is so much harder to go back, like there are tentacles in her soul that say to sleep forever. They're wonderful and she wants to listen to them even though they have no voices and she shouldn't hear anything at all in the silent, noiseless air.

Even so, she wants to sleep and dream and doesn't know why she can't keep dreaming. Her eyes shut and open and the drift happens like the waves from a beach shore and the next thing she knows there is a voice ripping her eardrums and crying.

_Where are you? Where are you?_

_Who are you?_

She can't identify the first speaker, and it scares her like someone following her home. But nothing comes from it and everything falls quiet. Her heart beats like a bird's trapped in a cage and screaming. She feels the tears in her blood but it isn't quite the same as the voiceless urge to sleep and dream of this world for eternity.

For some reason, she can't help but resist now. She wants to move. She feels stiff and wants to move but ends up drifting away again.

The air begins to ring and she can hear and it is _real_ hearing this time and all she can think is that something is about to happen.

Then her body tears down the middle and she sees blood and has no idea what to think or to feel because there is no pain and she knows it should hurt _and_ bleed. All she thinks is how much the pain isn't there and without the pain, there is something else missing.

_Hurry up and open your eyes._

When did she close them?

Hikari drifts in this state, wishing for it to end because there's somewhere else she needs to be, somewhere where it's not cold and there are actual voices, things she can understand.

Did the Digimon bring her here? They brought Koromon to her and her brother back then, was she joining them?

"Why are you still sleeping?"

Her eyes open but they don't open because the void is still around her but now she isn't alone in it. There is a woman there now and she is staring with bright eyes and a crooked smile. Or perhaps it's not a smile, but it's not a sad face either. Maybe she doesn't know what her face looks like.

"Why are you still sleeping?" she repeats with a mouth that does not move. "What is tying you here?"

"i don't know," she says before she can stop herself and the other woman chuckles.

"Liar," she says, not unkindly."You resist the pull, one way or another way. Why?"

Hikari wished she could shake her head because she doesn't understand, but instead tells the woman this. She earns a laugh like a breath of air and the woman floats closer. She is moving, how is she actually moving? Her fingers touch Hikari's cheek.

"I see," she says. "You are trying to communicate. Yes, you hear me and see me but I can't return this, I see..." She makes that air laugh again and pushes Hikari away. "You are a stubborn one."

This time she doesn't drift but fall and when Hikari's eyes open again, she sees a white ceiling and bright light and everything is very heavy and painful now.

"Yagami-chan!"


	2. The Stale Scent

_**A/N:** _It's good to know that people stalk me for my Hikari torture. Hehe. Thank you loyal followers and friends. Please read and review if you can!

Warning for attempted self-harm. Yes, I said that. For prompt 14- chemical!

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><p>2. The Stale Scent<p>

She doesn't recognize the voices around her at first and doesn't sit up in response to them, remaining almost entirely still and just trying to breathe. The deep lungfuls of air are like sharp bites with weird tastes in her mouth and yet she can't stop. She tries to stop and sit up and shivers. The room is chilly but when she sits up a curtain of hair follows her ears and she sees a pale-faced woman. Her brown eyes are big and Hikari is caught up in the urge to ask her what's wrong.

She sees the new woman for all of a few moments before her vision is almost covered by lines. Each gray and red, like a bloody, dirty spiderweb. Hikari sees them running over eyes and hands and down the leg and just the sight of them makes her stomach flip backwards and nausea run up her throat. The panic sets in and she can't explain why but her palms go up to her eyes before she can stop them and she presses-

_Can't see, don't want to see, don't want to_ think-

She feels the woman's hands on her wrists and she kicks out without thinking. Don't they see the lines, don't they know they're bad, don't they-

Sharp pain rises in her neck, then she's drowning.

When she wakes again, she is alone and the room is dark.

Her head is calmer now, she is not panicked, a part of her remembers where she probably is. A hospital. She had collapsed from being sick, so sick. She remembers being sleepy, resting and hearing low murmurs around her ears and then falling down into that void. Then... then there is very little, little but for that woman, that empty woman who doesn't have any feeling or thoughts at all. Would she have become that way too, if she hadn't woken up?

Her thoughts hurt. They are so big and heavy, she thinks they will spill out of her ears and maybe take up the rest of the space between all of the lines so then she can't actually see things anymore.

In the dark, the lines are faded, almost wisps, traced over the wilting flowers and the vase holding them. The air is quiet and she wants to press her palms back over her eyes, finish what might have been started and she has no clue why she wants to do this but she thinks if she doesn't, something terrible and sad will happen and she's not sure what it is.

Does she want to know?

But as Hikari sits up to do so, the wind rustles through the open window and a paper flies from the table and onto her bed. She takes it between two fingers and drops it. She can barely read her big brother's name on it before her eyes water and she curls herself under the sheets.

"Well, _you're_ a lot younger than I was expecting."

She peeks her head out. There is a woman there, hair flaming red and eyes like a gushing river. She's frowning, the expression not of anger but of curious interest. Hikari stares at her and shifts on the bed. The lines form, scrawling like her attempts at kanji. Reflexively, she ducks her head down.

Before Hikari can complete the motion, however, the woman has sat herself upon the bed, gripping Hikari's chin with thin, sharp fingers. "What are you looking away for?"

Her voice is icicles, melting icicles piercing Hikari's jaw without doing it and she is forced not to look away like she wants to and finally mumbles out. 'The lines... they're on your face..."

The woman snatches her hand away, affront on her lips. "I am not that old," she says and Hikari shakes her head, unconsciously reaching out and making to trace a pattern with her finger. The woman's other hand catches hers and she tuts. "No, no, not like that. You could have been more specific, no need to get violent about it." She smiles now and the expression is more predatory than kind.

"You could have killed me for a second there, little girl, and then where would we be?"


	3. The Identified Expression

_**A/N:** _I really almost forgot to do this. Ah well, here you go! Enjoy and please drop a review if you can! For prompt- education.

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><p>3. The Identified Expression<p>

Hikari blinks. Then blinks again. She rubs her eyes, trying to look through the lines. She sees the fabric of the yellow shirt as it swishes away, the woman going to examine the chart dangling from a nearby pole. Hikari makes to speak but can't get the words out. Instead, the woman speaks over her, to herself but still a bit noisy. Hikari expects a nurse by now. Yet no one comes.

"Lessee... Yagami Hikari... admitted April seventeenth, nineteen ninety-six for accelerated pneumonia, birthday is... height... weight...blood type... god you've been here a stone's throw, haven't you?" The woman's expression shifts, amusement revealing canines pointed like knives. "It's a bit past ninety-six ain't it?"

"Eh?" It's all she can say, voice kitten soft in the room that seems filled with this woman's presence. She had fallen and passed out and been sleeping. Could she have been sleeping that long? The very thought makes her head spin.

The woman sighs. "Poor lass, you ain' gotta clue, huh?" She strides over to the other side of the room, face thoughtful, and through the lines she can see it turn. "It's July of nineteen ninety-seven, sweet girl. You've been asleep a while."

Hikari flinches and looks down at her hands. They too are covered in lines, but they are also slow moving now, creaking in her head. Her legs are heavy and she can't shift them. "I was asleep for-"

"Over a year, yep," she says. "And you're awake now. But you don't like it, do you?" The blue eyes are back on here

Only now does it hit Hikari. She shouldn't be trusting this woman, this stranger. "Who are you?" Her brother would be upset with her that she hadn't said that sooner!

The woman laughs. "Oh, there we go, was waiting for that! Took you a bit, but you're a wee thing, so guess it's all right for now." She almost seems to pirouette and bow. "I'm Rion, Homura Rion. And I'm here about your eyes."

"My... my eyes?" Her skin crawls, she wants to push them again...

She scratches her head. "Well, your eyesight specifically. Ya know, the lines?"

Hikari tilts her head. "How do you know?" These questions are taking much too long for her to think of them, and it hurts her head to try. Rion is familiar, an itch in the back of her brain that she doesn't know how to scratch.

She gets another smile. "We-ell, I see 'em too. You're seeing death, sweetheart. And I'm here to help you there. First thing is that I have to do... this!"

She strides over, quick movements and Hikari tries to scramble into her pillow. Rion lowers her finger in an imitation of a gun and pretends to fire.

"Bang!"

Hikari jumps and in that brief instant, she is unable to see. Her vision goes entirely black.

She can hear Rion giggling as though she is the child and it is coming from all around her and she doesn't understand why. Then, the world creeps back in to view, colors and shapes and blurs returning into focus. The world's edges are fuzzed. But the lines are gone, like they were never there.

Hikari is young but she knows nothing good is easy to get. "How?"

"Magic." She says magic like her brother says 'obviously' before he does something really fun or dangerous. Hikari looks at Rion, now able to see glowing tattoos on her arms that were covered by the lines. They are streaks twisted in a pattern her brain doesn't have the words for, like chains and infinities and other weird shapes. She sees a pair of scars on each cheek, badly cut red hair and each palm looks worn and burnt.

"Magic?" she repeats.

"Yep." Rion finally sits down in the nearby chair. "It's not party tricks and happy endings. It's blood and practicality."

"Practi-what?"

Rion blinks. "Sorry, I keep forgetting you're actually a kid." She grins and says. "Means it's useful. I'm gonna teach you how to use it."

"Why?"

Rion throws up her hands, pretending exasperation. "Goddess alive, you ask so many questions! Was I ever this curious?" Hikari doesn't answer this and Rion grins. "Basically, if I don't teach you, you could kill some people by accident. A lot. And it's not pretty. Death is not pretty, especially when it's an accident."She looks around, as if she hears a voice that Hikari cannot. "I've spent a bit too long chattin' at you. Get some sleep and say hi to your brother for me! Talk to you again!"

She's gone within half-a-step, like she was never there at all.

Hikari stares, then the world goes woozy and she passes out, falling back on the bed with a fwump.


	4. The Offered Chance

_**A/N:** _No guys, I did not forget to other day, my computer updated while I was sleeping and my word processing program decided to not auto recover any files so a lot of recent work was lost that wasn't on google drive, including a couple of Night updates. Fixing that though! So I've been spending time with that and finals. So... yeah, sorry about that. That should hopefully be fixed soon. Anyway, on with the fic.

Thank you Angelfish, and all my random favs and follows. I'm jumping in now. This is for prompt 50-stay. Well, here we go! Please read and review!

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><p>4. The Offered Chance<p>

Hikari awakes the next morning expecting the lines to be there, dark against the bright sky. Her vision is still blurry but remains lineless. She doesn't sit up, but waits for the nurse. She knows the woman is nearby. Should she open her eyes again?

"Yagami-chan?" Well, that answered that. "Are you awake?"

"Un." It's easy to say, but she's slow to lift herself into a sitting position. Her body feels heavy, heavier than the night before and the day before that and she wonders if she's really slept longer than a morning.

"It's good to see you relaxed again," the nurse says, fluffing the pillows. "Your family will be by this afternoon, so let's get some nutrients in you that aren't just from the IV, all right?"

Hikari nods, not sure what she is nodding to until a drink is placed in her hand. The nurse says other things, calling the doctor in. All of their talking makes Hikari's head spin like a top and she's surprised she can answer their questions. It is so much better once they're gone.

"Bit overwhelming, isn't it?"

Hikari would have jumped if she could, but instead, she turns her head to see Rion at the windowsill with a smile. "They're confusing..." she says without thinking.

Rion laughs. "They're adults."

Hikari nods. It is something in those words, something that reminds her of watching children be shepherded around her, as though she is a big rock. She leaves that though and says: "Why are you here?"

"Well, you're my apprentice, so I need to make sure you don't slip into the Akasha again."

Her tone is Papa's about his second beer can to her exasperated mother, but the words make less sense. "Apprentice? Akasha?" She parrots them and tilts her head,. The second word is rushed syllables and oddness.

Rion groans. "Ew, sorry, I sounded like an adult."

Hikari can't help it; she giggles.

Rion makes a noise like Miko's purring. "There's a kiddie laugh." She frowns, as if a thought has just occurred to her. "How old're you again?"

"Six." Well, she's been asleep for so long, is that even true?

"Mm... that's emotionally true so it should be all right..." Rion pierces her with those blue eyes again and the feeling is not unlike a wasp in her neck or a needle in her arm. "All right! Wanna learn some magic tricks?"

"Like rabbits?" Hikari has never liked those sorts of tricks. Being trapped in a hat (or squished in some part of a hat) didn't seem like fun to her. She also can't help but notice her questions weren't actually answered.

Rion shakes her head. "Those are parlor tricks, sweet." Her voice is grave. "I mean real magic, magic with a purpose. Magic that _does_ things… like heal, like hurt."

"Like kill?" She doesn't know why the word pops into her head but there it is, plain as day.

It gets a smile, no, her brother would call it a leer. "Exactly, little sweet. _Precisely_ that. But not now. Killing is delicate and sensitive work, being related to dying and all."

Hikari feels her heart lurch and can't pin why, but it vanishes the second Rion flicks her forehead.

The lines are back after that.

Hikari moves to cover her eyes, but Rion's strong, adult hands pulls them back. "No, pretty lass, none of that. I did that last night as proof it could happen. Now, today, you need to prove to me you can learn."

Hikari has never been a child to complain about small things; it's hard to when Taichi runs to fix them right away. However, this doesn't seem like a tiny thing, rather a very large, adult thing and it was probably very important to complain about it.

But she doesn't and only nods.

Rion lets her go and sits back on the bed. "Atta girl, das the way." Her voice remains soft and calm and Hikari is drawn to it like a moth to flame. "Now, I looked around on my way in. Yer gettin' some family in here soon. I want you to act normal with them."

"Normal?"

Rion tried not to laugh. "Yeah, normal. Talk to them. You missed them, right?"

Hikari blinks, but before she can answer there is the sound of footsteps at her door. Someone knocks and when Hikari turns to look, Rion disappears.

Then she hears a delighted shout and her black vision is full of blue shirt and brown hair and Hikari almost passes out from the sheer force of her brother's hug.


	5. The Uncontrolled Relief

**_A/N:_ **Happy Monday! Kind of. Anyway, here is today's update, for the prompt- worried. Nightshadegirl, the only question I can answer is the one for chapter two with a nice, empathic yes. Unfortunately, it took her a lot longer to wake up than in the canon, so everything is all nice and messed up. That all said, please read and review and enjoy everybody!

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><p>5. The Uncontrolled Relief<p>

For a moment all she can see are the black lines scurrying around each other and she feels fear but then her brother's voice babbles in her ear. His voice is deeper and kind of chokey, like he swallowed wasabi by accident. It is still her big brother, though, her silly older brother.

"You were so slow waking up, Mom almost had kittens, and everyone's been freaked out! Sora usually comes with me to visit you, but she and her mom are fighting again, I think, I dunno, I don't ask. I think she's still mad about the hat, but that was ages ago and I didn't mean to-"

"Taichi, she needs to breathe."

Taichi stops, face pink and Hikari is both relieved and confused because of the quiet expression on her mother's face, what she can see of it anyway. Taichi glances at her and Hikari feels a lump rise in her throat.

"Sorry," she says over it, not knowing why she is saying sorry, because there were so many reasons, two years' worth of apologies.

Her mother smiles and the sad feeling fills up her lungs and expands the lump in her throat. She feels her eyes water and the lines don't blur when she cries and that's actually kind of scary. Taichi lifts her easily from the bed and hugs her, laughing and not crying but it is a good laugh so she doesn't mind. The lines run up her mother's salmon jacket and Hikari ponders tracing it too with her finger.

Remembering the flowers makes her stop, crestfallen, and lower her hand. Her mother's face hurts, and Hikari wilts, then tries to smile.

"I'm sorry," she repeats, pulling away from Taichi too.

The air is tense until her father walks in and somehow that makes it worse for her because she sees the lines in his face and the exhaustion all over her family and all she can think is that the lines are everywhere.

They talk to her for a while, about classes she has missed and what she has to do to feel better and come home and all she thinks is that she wants them to leave so she can throw up what she's managed to eat today.

But when the doctor walks in, she knows that's not possible and forces herself to smile, answering more questions and being talked about like she isn't there. The more she wants them gone, the more she swears that the lines are glowing, as if saying to trace them, to draw on them, and she just pulls her hands closer into her lap. She hasn't forgotten Rion's words, even though she has no reason to trust her.

She has no reason not to, either.

By the time visiting hours and examinations end, Hikari's head is pounding and she wants to cry.

"You see why you need to learn now?"

Rion's words drift into her mind but she isn't actually there.

Maybe Rion isn't real.

Maybe all that sleep has made her crazy.


	6. The First Snap

_**A/N:** _Sorry for how late these updates are tonight. I'm still working on some and I got really busy today of all days. And i thought I could relax. Anyway, this chapter is for the prompt "step". Thank you for all the reviews, which I cannot publicly respond to because spoilers. ;D Until next time, please read and review!

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><p>6. The First Snap<p>

There's something wonderful about the silence that she's left to at the end of the day.. She has never realized how tiring her family is. Now they have all of these secret looks that she doesn't understand and even Taichi is less bright and cheery than he was before and it's all very confusing. She barely has the energy to poke at her food.

Of course, she's not alone. She sees the doctors peeking through the window, big shadows that linger and are split by the lines. She wonders how she can see the lines through the door, and why even now it makes her heart hurt to see them. Rion had mentioned killing before, when the word had slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. Was that what the lines meant?

She could hurt them through the door.

_You could kill them._

Hikari drops her utensils, letting plastic bounce against plastic. With quick breaths, she slips from the bed to look out the window. All that are there are trees and plants and she can't see those in the dark and the lines are even darker, so the sky is just a blur of no color. She tries to calm herself, tries to block out the thought that didn't sound like her but now it _really does._

She can do this. She can be okay. She already saw the monsters. She could see the lines too.

For ages, she had noticed the monsters. It isn't hard to, not when they don't really try to hide. They walk around people, through people. No one sees a thing, not even when they go away.

Just like nobody sees the lines, except her.

That's scary.

_She's_ scary.

'Yes, yes you are."

She feels Rion's hand in her hair before she knows the other is there. Hikari jumps and Rion cheerfully picks her up mid-leap and twirls her. It should be terrifying, and even a little funny, but instead, Hikari merely feels sick and tired and for some reason starts to cry.

Rion catches on so fast that it's rather unnerving but pulls her into a hug. Hikari kicks and struggles but is left helpless to an adult's strong grip. Her cheeks burn. She's having a tantrum, a kiddie, dumb front of a stranger. She struggles to pull them down, back, put them away.

"Hey, sweetheart, enough of that. You're a kid, you're supposed to lose your guts a couple of times. Don't fight it." Rion's voice is unusual, almost angry and Hikari wonders if it's towards her or something else. She's so tired, she's not sure she cares.

She squirms sadly,body sagging. She now really hates being small. And is really glad Taichi's not here.

"That's it. Let it out. Snap. The quicker you fall, the better you can get up again."

Hikari focuses on breathing, staring over Rion's head out the window.

"Relax." Rion's voice is calm. "You're not ready."

"But I need to be."

The tantrum that had filled her head swells again, but it is tempered by something alien. She needs to be ready, to do _something_, and she doesn't know what that something is.

It doesn't even feel like it's _her_ something.

Rion sets her down, her expression unreadable. "Yeah," she agrees sadly. "You need to be ready for so much."

"Am I gonna do something?" Hikari squirms at the thought. Is she going to see that day again? Play with Koromon? Can she ever play again with all of these lines?

Rion shrugs. "I can't tell you that." She claps her hands. "All right, here's what you're gonna do for me for a while. I want you to imagine it raining. Create a storm in your mind, with angry winds and hail and lightning. Create it until you can't even see the lines when you open your eyes. Keep imagining it."

Hikari looks down at her lap. "I don't like storms much," she mumbles. Adults need to stop changing the subject.

Rion nods, a slow gesture, like she knows this already. "You're going to change that."


	7. The New Stare

_**A/N: **_Hey all! This update is for the prompt- wash. nightshadegirl, thanks so much for keeping up. As always, please read and review!

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><p>7. The New Stare<p>

Hikari spends the night in a sort of stupor, alternating between imagining the rain and sleeping. Neither come easy with the lines flashing under her eyelids when she rolls in the direction of the door, but she manages a little of the latter. The storm her mind conjures is little more than dark clouds and raindrops, but it's something, she hopes when she finally drifts off to sleep. Is it her imagination, or are the lines a little dimmer than before?

She thinks on this the next day, and imagines the storm once more. She looks outside and thinks of rain on the window panes, of clouds darkening the blue sky to gray. She smiles a little, suddenly hearing the pattering over the windows as the clouds made their way slowly past the hospital window.

"Hikari-chan?"

The hand on her shoulder makes her jump and she turns, the storm fading from her mind's eye. She slows her racing heart and smiles. "Mom!"

She isn't sure what it is, but her mother's face relaxes at the sheer delight Hikari gives her. What was wrong? Had she worried her yesterday? "How are you feeling?" she says before Hikari can ask.

Hikari thinks about it. "Mm…" She thinks about coughing and finds her chest is less tight, letting her breath. "Better," she says, looking around. "Onii-chan is…?"

"At practice," her mother replies and perhaps that's where the wrongness is, in that her mother looks bothered by something. "Dad's talking to the doctor right now."

"Un." Hikari somehow feels disinterested, like the dismissing of her brother is also dismissing her and something about that isn't comforting. "Am I going home?"

"A couple more days," Mom says, her voice a little tight. "You were in a coma for a year, Hikari-chan. You woke up from it rather quickly too. They're going to have to set up some tests, help you recover motor strength."

Hikari has very little idea what that means, but she figures it's why her arms have been hurting every time she's moved them or why she wants to sleep just from rolling her head. So she accepts that and closes her eyes. She wants to imagine it raining again. That sounds much better than looking at the look on her mother's face, which seems so sad and unhappy.

"Hikari-chan."

"Un?" She opens her eyes, a little cross about that.

"Are you angry at Taichi?"

Hikari blinks. "Why would I be?"

For some reason, her mother doesn't answer. Again with this adult thing of not answering questions, not even when the answers are important, especially when it is about Taichi, who she hasn't seen in what feels like hours to her but has been a whole year to them, she hasn't seen anyone, anything but that void, the place where every color is everything and all of them are not there at all.

She opens her eyes and breathes and her mother starts.

"Hikari… your eyes?"

Hikari rubs them, and finds nothing. She looks towards the water glass sitting innocently on the table and blinks, more puzzled than afraid.

Her eyes are blue, a brilliant shade of blue with multiple shades of red branching from the pupils like a growing tree.

Like Rio's, she thinks.

Only somehow, so much darker.

Her mother leaves to get the doctor, and Hikari only shuts her eyes to the lines and thinks of the rain. Maybe she will be able to imagine a hurricane now.

Her head is full of storm clouds.


	8. The Tiring Steps

_**A/N:**_ Hey everybody! Goodness, I need more sleep I think. Oh well. This is for the prompt-physical. All right, not gonna waste any time. I apologize for a bit of a snail's pace but she needs some rehab after sleeping for a year! All that said, I'm getting to it! Please read and review!

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><p>8. The Tiring Steps<p>

For the fifth time that day, Hikari falls, almost-face first into the mats. Her elbows catch her and she bites her lip to keep the groan from slipping out. Two weeks since she woke up, and she's still having trouble walking across a straight path without a bar to hold. It's even harder, the rehab doctor says, because she's so small.

She rather likes this doctor, straightforward and nice and even a bit demanding. She doesn't snap at her when Hikari dazes off into the storm clouds like the phimusician does, but does call her back to work. Which she goes to.

Each step is slower and more painfully made than the last but she's managed another half a meter before collapsing this time around.

"Mm…" Minami-sensei murmurs. "Progress. Slightly. Drink?"

Hikari nods, taking the offered water bottle. She feels a bit like a toddler, being retaught how to move by herself.

She has to walk though. She has to run. She has to be able to move her hands. Her brother can't protect her as well if she can't listen to him and run if he says so. And the magic… she doesn't want to stay still if she can use magic. That's not how it works. All the people move when they use it. At least on TV.

"All right," Minami-sensei says, tapping her clipboard. "Again."

Hikari nods and starts to crawl to her feet again.

She thinks she can do this.

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><p>They can't explain her eyes. The doctor says something about blood vessels and her parents nod as though that means something but Hikari figures it means they have no idea. So long as they don't look at the flowers, she'll be fine.<p>

Her eyes aren't hurting her, so she's not going to worry about it. She settles in her wheelchair a little more. Taichi grins shakily from above her head. Their house isn't wheelchair friendly. This is just a precaution until they get outside. She was recovering. It was so slow…

But she is _moving_. Days and weeks and she had managed to run across the room with only a few stumbles.

She can almost forget the lines, in wake of that.

As she is wheeled out of the hospital, however, she sees Rion standing by the parking lot.

Her family walks right past her, almost through her.

Rion laughs. "I'm not imaginary, darling. Not yet. I'm in the storm. I'm in your storm. I'll see you tomorrow."

Hikari flexes her fingers, feels them move, and nods. There are less lines outside, and she shuts her eyes to them. Taichi just glances at her, then pokes her cheek. He pokes her again. She can't help it, she whines a bit.

"Onii-chan…"

"Hikari's thinking too hard," he protests, trying to smile. "We're gonna go home and watch cartoons and sleep!"

Hikari can't help it; she starts to giggle. "Are you gonna turn on _Super Sentai_?"

"What do you think?" Taichi's smile is so wide; it hurts to look at it. "That's gonna be me one day, right?"

Hikari giggles. "Nii-chan will lead a team to save the world!"

Taichi musses her hair and then pauses, hesitates. "Hikari… I'm sorry."

Again with this. Why does everyone think she's mad? "I should have kicked the ball better," she tells him and Taichi almost snorts. Their parents are bringing the car around and he's watching for them with one eye.

"Then I'll teach you next time."

Hikari smiles. Taichi's voice is shaking a little still, but it's better now. Maybe things will calm down. He shouldn't worry so much. She is his little sister after all.

She still doesn't look at them on the car ride home. The lines are dim, but they're not gone.

A few nights before, she had cut the lines. She cut the flowers with a tiny fingernail.

Everyone thought the flowers had wilted.

Hikari knows better.


	9. The Opening Statement

**_A/N: _**Good morning! Sorry for no update on Monday, I was still getting over a cold and couldn't get the energy to update. Thanks to all of you reviewers. You're all onto something... it's a bit scary, actually. Though this chapter drops a big hint... sort of. This is for the prompt 'afraid. That said, here we go! Please read and review!

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><p>9. The Open Statement<p>

"Miko?"

Her cat mews, looking back from the balcony window. She skitters away from Hikari's still clumsy fingers as she reaches her. Hikari sighs. Before the coma, she had been easily able to catch her cat. Now it's hard just to keep up with her. But it was better now. She hadn't tripped yet.

"Alone at last?"

Hikari blinks, turning to the balcony. Rion sits on the metal rail, grinning like always. Her blue eyes sparkle and Hikari can't help but glance at the nearby mirror. Her eyes are their rose selves now, but they'll be blue again soon enough. They flicker, like old neon signs. It's strange but the doctors are trying not to worry.

She looks behind her, like her family will come through the door at any moment. Then she crosses the room and slowly pushes the glass door open. The warm breeze brushed her hair back and Rion spat red locks from her face. "It's easy to imagine the clouds now, and the rain."

"Of course it is," Rion said, and her smile isn't mocking, but so very relaxed, like she knew Hikari would say that. "Cause you don't understand what's going on, do you? Your family is acting in a way you don't remember, you're seeing weird lines with your funny eyes, and you can't walk so good. Don't make sense, do it?"

Hikari squints. "How did you know that?"

Rion smiles. "You know that already."

Hikari crosses her arms. She doesn't know. Whatever it is, she _doesn't know._ She's sick and little and tired and her legs are wobbling, she doesn't know _anything._

Rion steps towards her and kneels. Cold fingers trail down her cheek and there is a very quiet sigh. Even though she's been bathing in the sun for more than a few minutes, she is still so cold.

"You have to be careful," she hears Rion say. "You have to be, sweetheart. You could die, darling. I could do all this and you could still die. They are watching, they are looking after you, but they can't do anything here, you understand? They have no power here, not really."

"They?" Her parents, her brother, who?

"The creatures on the television. The creatures in the street." Her voice is so much like it's praying, so much like when Hikari sees them and thinks _maybe it's Koromon!_ even though it's not, not ever.

Hikari squirms. "You can see them." Maybe Rion can see _everything_, even into her head and everyone's minds and through walls.

Rion pulls back and shakes her head. "No," she says. "_You_ can see them." She stands and turns around, like the moment had never happened at all. "Now, close your eyes and think of the rain." Her voice is teacher seriousness with a child's shaking at the thought of being onstage, and Hikari figures she's not going to hear anything else.

So she closes her eyes.

"Imagine the rain in your hands, pooling up like you're about to wash your face. Cup your hands."

Hikari does, and soon she can't feel the sun on her bare toes. She says nothing, and eventually opens her eyes.

The balcony is empty but for her, and a sphere of water is hovering over her fingers. Startled, she lets it go and it splashes to make the balcony steam. Hikari stares at her hands, at a loss.

"Hikari!"

Taichi's voice. He sounds happy, really happy, like it was before. "What are you doing out here?"

Hikari stares at him now. She is scared again, but he sees nothing wrong. Maybe there is nothing wrong.

She smiles and makes slow steps towards her brother. "Playing with my friends!" The imaginary ones.

Yes, Rion is imaginary. Rion is her.

But where did she think her up?


	10. The Clockwork Movements

_**A/N: **_Sorry for how late this came up, I forgot because I was fixing something for the DFC. Also classes started again but hopefully I will not be that scarce. This is for the prompt-industrious. Please read and review! I'll hopefully respond to reviews at some point... Thanks for your patience!

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><p>10. The Clockwork Movements<p>

Taichi wakes, and not for the first time, to find Hikari wide awake, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes are blue and he doesn't wince. He is the big brother and he is not scared. He is just worried, that's all, and being worried is not the same as being scared.

Still. Her eyes are that weird blue and not their reddish-brown and she is staring resolutely up at the ceiling like something is there. Then she makes herself stand up. Each move is slow, abnormally slow, because her body is still waking up to the world around it. She lifts herself to the tips of her toes and Taichi can't help but think she looks like a cat, stretching for prey that wasn't actually there.

Seconds later, however, she plopped forward onto her stomach, sinking slightly into the carpet.

Despite himself, he snickers. Hikari rolls over and stares at him. "Nice faceplant."

She giggles, no longer wide-eyed and worried. "Since when do you get up before me?" he joked.

"Since forever." Hikari giggles again as she says this. "Onii-chan is lazy when there's no soccer."

He huffs, reaching for the goggles that had somehow come off from his head. "Soccer is a lifelong passion, Hikari," he says with a grin. "Without it, what kind of man am I? Just your nosy big brother."

"My best, nosy big brother," she corrects, and the creases in her tiny, thin face seem to ease a little. He grins at this, swallowing the worry in his chest. He can be as freaked out as he wants, so long as she doesn't see it. She moves to crawl back into bed again. "I wanna run today," she announces with a yawn. "Can Onii-chan come too?"

"Sure." He says it without thinking and doesn't regret it. If he's with her, he'll be able to see, notice, help. He has to. He has to do it right this time.

Plus, the happy way she thanks him makes him to a little mental dance. She's been worried, upset, frightened.

When Hikari, his sister, is happy, that's when things are all right.

…

Hikari rolls over in bed, mentally grinning to herself. This will work. She will be able to get stronger. Clearly, her head wants her to do that, if it's showing her Rion. Being able to run will be strength! And she'll be able to ask her brother why they're all so… shifty. She never thought to compare her parents with a key on the English keyboard but it had happened!

If they were worried about her, she would run the best she could. Then they wouldn't have to anymore. Not even if she got sick.

Not even if she gets sick again.

_Dies again._

Hikari lifts her head. No one is there, not even Rion. Or maybe Rion is there.

Who is Rion? Is Rion really her imaginary friend?

She goes to sleep thinking about these questions.


	11. The Old Grind

**_A/N: _**Okay, wow, it's been a while since this one. I really am sorry for that. Real life and other obligations took over and by the time it was time to update, I couldn't drag myself up to do it. So, yeah, most of that should be settled by the end of the month, hopefully. Anyway, back to the fic. This is for the prompt: well-off. Please read and review!

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><p>11. The Old Grind<p>

Almost two months after she wakes up, Hikari is told she can go back to school.

The thought almost makes her push away her breakfast, not that she hadn't already been considering it. She's never managed to like eggs much after Koromon. But she eats and nods mechanically, because what choice does she have?

Crazy or not, all children have to go to school.

She eats her rice with vigor and looks for Rion, hoping maybe she will give her something to make this easier. But there's nothing right now. Rion hasn't been there in so long, maybe she made her up to convince herself to stay awake.

So she gets ready for school. Physically. Mentally, Hikari is panicking. The lines, what if she cuts one again?

No, she won't. she can't. She is Taichi's little sister. She's strong enough to handle school. She's strong, or she will be. Strong means normal.

Even though she says that, Taichi didn't seem to get that memo. He follows her like a dutiful soldier right down to the faculty office, explains it all in this adult voice that Hikari finds herself not liking very much, and then she's sat down and given tests. At least papers aren't alive anymore.

She writes, her fingers sluggish. She doesn't like holding pencils anymore. What she wants to hold is steel, with a smooth hilt that she can put in her pocket.

Seconds after thinking that thought, Hikari feels ready to vomit. She almost does.

She swallows it, and tries to stop thinking about knives until she finishes the tests.

* * *

><p>Taichi has hours in class, and the teachers are looking through her tests one by one, so there's nothing really for her to do. Hikari sits in another room, stares at the ceiling, counts the dots on the ceiling. She gets bored and tries to make the rain fall or heat up the sun but every time she tries, they think she's falling asleep and gently shake her.<p>

She might as well sleep, for all the good it's doing her to be awake.

Then there is a tingling. It's a tingling at her ears that spreads down to her fingers and the soles of her feet but nobody notices. Hikari totters on her slow feet to the window and peers out into the sunny day. Children are playing, she can see her brother's hair bouncing as he runs and right by the swing set is a great big shadow.

It's staring at her.

Hikari can't explain how she's sure of this at first, but it is not looking at anything near it, and it is staring up. It blinks when she blinks. When she waves a hand, it follows the movement.

"Toilet," she blurts out to the adults, and runs.

On her way out, she passes one of the test papers. The grade is good. Maybe everyone will be happy.

When she passes another window, the creature is somehow closer.

_Who are you,_ she thinks? _Who are you?_

"I found you," she hears, so close to her ears that she can almost smell something at her nose.

But it's not caught up yet.

"It will," she hears Rion say. "You've got to be strong when it does."

Strong?

But strong is normal isn't it? If it's not, what is it?

"Alive."

Hikari doesn't realize that she's picked up a piece of glass until it's sliding across her fingers. All she can think to do is run.


	12. The Not Okay

A/N: Hey! Hoping to get back on my twice a week updating schedule this upcoming Monday. We'll see what happens. This is for prompt-tested. Read and review my good friends! if you want to, of course.

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><p>12. The Not Okay<p>

Taichi bites back a groan of irritation. "Who lost the ball?"

It's just a pickup game of soccer, how can someone kick the thing that far out of range? Not even he's that competitive... some of the time. He shrugs his shoulders and goes to get it, glancing towards the school in the process.

He'd seen his sister's face when they had gotten there. She may _think_ that she's gotten the "I'm okay with everything" face down to a science, but he is the older brother and he knows when she really isn't okay.

He knows when she wants to say "no" but can't get the sound out.

This, sadly enough, was one of those times where he couldn't bail her out. She did have to go to school, despite being comatose for a year and having trouble walking and making sense and everything.

His sister was not as happy these days.

Dad wanted to send her to therapy(1). They thought he didn't know. Heck, she probably knew. Mom had vetoed it, because what would that say about them that they couldn't help their daughter?

Taichi thinks maybe she should go.

Not because she is crazy, but because she isn't telling them what's going on or she can't and maybe a stranger is better.

He picks up the soccer ball and sees a mop of brown hair fly past. He turns and sees his sister turn a corner. Without thinking, Taichi drops the ball and follows her.

Hikari's half run is slowing, she still can't do it as well, and eventually, she stops.

"Who are you?" she says. Her voice is clear and shaky somehow. There is nothing in front of her that Taichi can see, nothing behind her. Does she know he followed him?

"Why were you staring at me?"

Still silence.

Taichi wants to step out, ask who she's talking. She's too old for imaginary friends. She knows that, right? Maybe the long sleep gave her some.

"Are you friends with Koromon?"

It's the word_ Koromon_ that splits his head. He sees blurry images, feels the heat of fire, his feet almost swell with old pain.

Taichi hears a cheerful voice, his sister's whistle. It's so much, so much…

He almost doesn't hear Hikari again.

"Leave me alone!"

Now he can see it. He can see a gray creature, tall and hunched. It steps closer, each step a squelch. "Come," it rasps.

"No!"

It's the 'no' that makes him begin to run forward. "Hikari!"

Hikari peers through the gap. There's no relief in her face. "Onii-chan, stay away!"

He ignores that because he is the older one and scrambles on top of a dustbin. The monster reaches for his sister...

And his sister's hands swing.

The next thing he sees can only be blood, but it is pitch black and tar in texture as it splats the ground. From his vantage point, he sees rose red eyes turn to ice-blue and abyssal.

Hikari swipes the piece of glass again. At first, it seems like she's missed. Then there's another clean cut and the tar blood bursts over his sister's face.

She just swipes again. Her little face is so angry, the fear eclipsed by it.

"Go away!" she yells and it'd be less intimidating but for her eyes, the cold blue murder-chill of those eyes. "Leave me alone! I'm staying here!"

There's one more swipe, and the creature explodes all over the alley.

Taichi swears it laughs before that happens.

Then all of the mess is gone, leaving his wobbly-kneed sister with a piece of glass in her hand, hands dripping red.

She collapses, weeping.

it takes a few seconds for Taichi to go to comfort her.

It takes all of his courage to hug her.


	13. The Invisible Marks

_**A/N:**_ This is for the prompt-brown. Do apologize for the confusion of last chapter because this chapter probably won't help matters but I'm getting to the point where I can actually start making everything make proper sense. As always, I look forward to your thoughts!

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><p>13. The Invisible Marks<p>

Taichi takes her back up to the classroom. He lies to his friends, saying he lost the ball and needs to get a new one. Hikari sees this from by the door. She squirms, but doesn't jump in and say it's her fault, because they might panic at the sight of her bleeding palms. He follows her dutifully to the bathroom, watching her wash her hands and rub her face and by the time she's done her hands are raw red and about to start bleeding again. He takes the first-aid kit and bandages them. His eyes are so quiet, mouth set in a thin line that's bursting to snap at the seams. Hikari can hear the words he wants to say, but strides past him before he can. Her face is still puffy, but not enough to attract attention.

She had cut the lines.

She had known what would happen. She knows right now that she can do it again.

Hikari clenches her hands tighter, so they won't stray, so they can't run away.

Taichi is right there, so she can't. She shouldn't, anyway.

But why does she _want_ to?

"Don't you like it?" Rion's voice said, her voice only steps behind. Hikari can't turn while walking, though she wishes she could, so she could see the expression Rion's wearing. "Look sweetheart, you saved yourself. That thing would have been kidnapped you, hurt your brother if it had gotten the chance. Would you be able to let that happen?"

Hikari curls her fingers into fists. No. No. Not that. She can't let that-

But why?

"Because kidnapping is _bad_, obviously."

Hikari almost giggles aloud. The absurdity of that statement hurts. She stops and lets her brother walk her on to the room.

Rion had said something she would say.

"That's because I _am_ you. Can't you see that?"

She wants to ask how or why and can't because the teachers are beckoning her forward to look at her answers and she doesn't care about the squiggles on the paper at all. She pretends to care, and then waits until they let her go home.

She has to pretend to be normal again. Then she can be normal again. Normal children go outside, go to school, play with their friends. Normal children don't cut lines in the air and hurt things. She can be normal.

Taichi's eyes, chocolate with worry, tell her it won't be that simple.

Even with clean hands, there's no way to say the blood was never there.


	14. The Parting of the Veil

_**A/N: **_Ironically enough, my song for this started playing as I finished the edits to this chapter. This is for the prompt-fog. I'm sorry I'm not responding to reviews or questions, but this chapter has dropped the biggest clues I have without outright saying it, so I was waiting for this one. Thank you outline, for derailing yourself.

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><p>14. The Parting of the Veil<p>

By the time Taichi gets up every day, Hikari is awake and out of the room. She's at the table whenever he gets up, or coming in from outside. Her forehead is usually dripping sweat then but she just walks right past him. She seems more afraid to touch him than for him to touch her.

He doesn't know how to reassure her. Their parents know something is wrong at this point, how could they not? What can he say? He watched his sister kill someone and now she's scared of what he'll do, and he isn't sure if he should be scared or not.

Darn it, this is confusing.

She goes to school and he sees her smile there and follow the old friends into their new cliques (if you can call them that) and she tells him on their way home about the Sentai characters he knows about already and the bad books they need to read and he almost thinks everything is normal.

Almost.

Sometimes, if he wake up, he sees her on the floor of their room with a cup of water sitting on the carpet. The water floats from the cup once in a while, but mostly it stays there and ripples to an unknown force. All she does is sit there, breathing quietly.

He considers telling her, but he's still not sure what to say. He wishes he was smarter.

After a while, she stops doing it, and the water glass just sits on her desk.

It's around that time that Taichi thinks he's seeing things.

Hikari tugs on his shirt sleeve. "The light's green."

Taichi blinks his eyes and rubs them. "Yeah, sorry. Slept funny."

There's no way he could have seen a woman in their room-

"Maybe you shouldn't play today." Her voice quavers with that familiar worry that is so much his sister's and his heart swells a little.

He musses her hair. "Nah, I'll be fine, you know me." He will be fine, _soccer_ is the easiest thing in the world.

Hikari smiles, though her heart isn't in this one either. Taichi has a feeling that she's trying, so he takes that as good enough. "I'll cheer you on!"

"Then I'm gonna have to win."

"Of course you're going to win."

Taichi grins all the wider and laughs. He doesn't look at the red-haired woman as they pass her though he knows she's there.

He sees Hikari look instead.

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><p>Rion knows he can see her now. She takes advantage of it. What choice does she have? If they all can't see her, if they all can't <em>believe<em>-

Then Hikari's work, _her_ work, is all for nothing.

As long as they all see the truth, just this once-

The loops won't be for nothing. They can't be.

The deaths can't be for nothing.

This Hikari, the one holding tight to her brother's hand, will be the last like her. She will come back too, just one more time.

And that will break the curse, somehow.

Unfortunately, Rion has no clue what will happen after that.

It has been a long time since August fourth of 1999, after all.


End file.
